Special report: O.C. teacher dismissals

Nov. 25, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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Third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond was fired for possessing a .38-caliber handgun in her classroom at Diamond Elementary in Santa Ana in 2008. After students discovered the gun, the school district's police department documented the gun in a series of photos. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A .38-caliber handgun that third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond brought to her classroom at Diamond Elementary in Santa Ana in 2008 was found by one of her students next to some bullets. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A .38-caliber handgun that third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond brought to her classroom at Diamond Elementary in Santa Ana in 2008 was found in a classroom drawer by one of her students. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Daniel Duane Axtell of Santa Ana worked as an English teacher at Talbert Middle School in Huntington Beach. He was arrested May 2007 and charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl. Authorities said Axtell groomed his student at Talbert Middle School and gained the trust of her parents. During a two-month period, Axtell committed lewd acts and had sexual intercourse with the student in various locations, including hotels and his vehicle, authorities said. Axtell pleaded guilty in 2009 to felony counts of lewd acts on a 14-year-old child and first-degree burglary. He was sentenced to four years in state prison.

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Christopher Micah Brazelton of Lake Forest worked as a first-grade teacher at Woodbury Elementary in Garden Grove. Brazelton was sentenced in January to eight years in prison for sexually touching a girl in his classroom and grabbing another's buttocks at a store.

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David Araya, a former teacher at Laguna Hills High School, pleaded guilty in 2011 to having sex with an underage student. He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of formal probation. COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

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Westminster High School teacher Daniel Shepard, left, and his wife, Gay Davidson-Shepard, a teacher at Huntington Beach's Mesa View Middle School, brought a 17-year-old boy to their home, gave him alcohol, and then had sex with him. They continued a sexual relationship with the student for several months. The pair pleaded guilty and got probation and community service, but no jail time. COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

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Aliso Viejo Middle School teacher Paul Ewell, left, runs with students in 2003 as they train for the Los Angeles Marathon. From 2006 to 2007, Ewell was accused of building a romantic relationship with a 14-year-old girl he was mentoring and training as a cross-country runner. Ewell and the girl referred to each other as “secret boyfriend angel” and “secret girlfriend angel” in hundreds of text messages they exchanged daily, and gave each other “angelship rings,” according to documents. The girl wanted to convert Ewell to Catholicism, records show. Ewell provided the girl a secret cellphone after the girl's mother became suspicious of the relationship, according to records. The Sheriff's Department eventually investigated the relationship, but found no evidence the two had a sexual relationship. Still, Capistrano Unified School District terminated Ewell for harassment of the girl. FILE PHOTO: SAM GANGWER, THE REGISTER

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Third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond was fired for bringing a .38 caliber handgun to her class at Diamond Elementary in Santa Ana. A student found the weapon inside a drawer next to several bullets.

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Carlie Attebury, pictured in this 2007 El Modena High School yearbook photo, was convicted by a jury of having sex with an underage student, but her conviction was overturned by an appeals court. The appeals court ruled that jurors may have been prejudiced after hearing testimony that she had had sex with three former adult students. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A bicyclist rides past Santa Ana's Diamond Elementary School. Jayne DeArmond, a former Diamond teacher, was arrested in 2008 after a student discovered a gun in one of her classroom supply drawers. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Alyssa Ann Johnson of Tustin worked as an English teacher at Trabuco Hills High School. She was arrested in November 2006 and charged with having a sexual relationship with an underage male student. She pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and was sentenced May 2007 to six months in jail.

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Former high school history teacher Christopher John Ontiveros of Cypress' Oxford Academy was acquitted by a jury in 2011 of charges that he engaged in an illegal sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. But the Anaheim Union High School District has moved forward with termination proceedings, arguing Ontiveros is unfit to teach. FILE PHOTO

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Naomi Perez, a former teacher at Santa Ana's Saddleback High School, lost her job for having a sexual relationship with an underage student at the school and vandalizing his car after their relationship ended. Perez received a $10,000 settlement payout from the Santa Ana Unified School District in February 2010, less than four months after being criminally charged. Four months after reaching the settlement, Perez pleaded guilty and was ordered to serve a 150-day jail sentence and register as a sex offender. COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

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Christopher Ontiveros, a former high school history teacher at Cypress' Oxford Academy, hugs his wife outside a Westminster courthouse in June 2011 after jurors acquitted him of engaging in illegal sex acts with a 17-year-old female student. Although he was acquitted, the Anaheim Union High School District is moving forward with termination proceedings, arguing he is unfit to teach. COURTESY OF DAVID COHN

Third-grade teacher Jayne DeArmond was fired for possessing a .38-caliber handgun in her classroom at Diamond Elementary in Santa Ana in 2008. After students discovered the gun, the school district's police department documented the gun in a series of photos. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

By the numbers

The Register's probe into O.C. teachers who left their districts amid allegations of misconduct turned up 36 cases since January 2007. Here are selected details about those reports.

Cases

24: Cases involving sex-related issues

5: Cases involving physical or verbal abuse

5: Cases involving drugs or alcohol

2: Cases involving teachers with guns

State licensing actions

21: Teachers who had licenses revoked

6: Teachers who had licenses suspended

9: Teachers with valid licenses

Criminal actions

17: Teachers convicted or who pleaded guilty to a crime in Orange County

7: Teachers on Megan's Law database

4: Teachers who had cases dismissed after serving probation

2: Teachers who had cases dismissed

1: Teacher acquitted after trial

How they left

18: Teachers who resigned

6: Teachers who retired

7: Teachers who were terminated

4: Teachers asked not to return, including substitutes blocked from sub lists

Orange County educators who've lost their teaching license in recent years are not all sexual predators and criminals.

The individuals tasked with ensuring the well-being and academic success of children have also been accused of showing up at school intoxicated, threatening students with violence, showing graphic photos to students, and yanking, smacking and grabbing kids.

Those are the findings of a review of five years of Orange County discipline cases in which public school educators resigned or were fired amid allegations of misconduct.

At least 35 educators from 14 O.C. school districts have left their jobs under this cloud of suspicion since 2007, according to O.C. teacher disciplinary records released to the Register.

Because each district has autonomy to decide how to handle all but its worst offenders, the range of possible actions is wide – some will aggressively move toward termination when presented with misconduct allegations; others will reach resignation settlements or do nothing.

The process is not an exact science, experts say, meaning some problem teachers are squeezed out while others remain.

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